Lukitsch Family Chronicles: Parade of States

Another child has become a 5th Grader in our house and every 5th Grader at our elementary school takes part in The Parade of States project in the fall, while studying the states and their capitals. Felicia's state was Alabama, which she probably picked because we almost moved there last year.

We included famous sites like the Talladega Speedway and Robert Trent Jones Golf Course, land forms, major industries (cotton and peanuts), famous Americans born there (Rosa Parks, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King Jr., Harper Lee, George Washington Carver), anything the state is known for. We added an Alabama baseball cap sticking out the front. We even planned to have "Sweet Home Alabama" playing on the float, which we hid under the box, cutting a hole in the side so Felicia could turn it off and on.

I found Ellie's class while we were waiting for the 5th graders and I have been dying to see who "Josh" was in her class because she comes home everyday telling me about him. I found her sitting right next to him and he is just as infatuated with her as she is with him, according to the teacher. So I took this picture of the two of them together, cute and giggly. (Weird, they even matched !)

Here is Felicia as she first comes outside. I didn't realize that the side we had put a hole in our box to insert the Ipod player was going to be the side facing the crowd. (The other side of the box, she had painted the state flag). What ended up being really disappointing, though, was the fact that her music didn't end up working at the actual parade. It worked 2 hours before, at home, but by the time she was ready to parade, the Ipod was not charged. Felicia was bummed.

Here she is taking her first lap around ! They take 2 laps around the bus loop before going back in. Felicia's class was the first one out. The whole school comes out to see the parade and patriotic music is piped outside while they are parading. It is a really neat thing.